Social media break down walls? Uh, no.

Local social media enthusiasts and media professionals held a face-to-face meeting at a Holiday Inn in town today.

Sorta.

These are your neighbors who have chosen to put themselves on the cutting edge of the media revolution. They are leveraging new technology for society’s benefit. They are actively experimenting with and finding uses today for the stuff that you will be using tomorrow.

They gathered in person to discuss this stuff, eschewing the image of

“people of pallor” who stay locked in their cubicle or mom’s den, all

alone, playing with computers.

Or did they?

Check out this photo taken at the event by someone there, and tell me what you notice about most of the attendees.

“A national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that with technology allowing nearly 24-hour media access as children and teens go about their daily lives, the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth. Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.”

Social media break down walls? Uh, no.

Local social media enthusiasts and media professionals held a face-to-face meeting at a Holiday Inn in town today.

Sorta.

These are your neighbors who have chosen to put themselves on the cutting edge of the media revolution. They are leveraging new technology for society’s benefit. They are actively experimenting with and finding uses today for the stuff that you will be using tomorrow.

They gathered in person to discuss this stuff, eschewing the image of

“people of pallor” who stay locked in their cubicle or mom’s den, all

alone, playing with computers.

Or did they?

Check out this photo taken at the event by someone there, and tell me what you notice about most of the attendees.